Conservative voices clashed with Obamacare planners and consumer advocates Monday over a $125 million Colorado request for federal funding to launch a subsidized health-insurance exchange.

Consumer groups hit the health-exchange board for cutting a $20 million request for outreach to new customers, arguing that few Coloradans know about the exchange and every penny is needed to guide confused patients through reforms.

More conservative voices on the Connect for Health Colorado board, meanwhile, attacked the overall $125 million federal grant request as irresponsible to taxpayers and the start of a bloated system.

“Just because federal funds are available doesn’t mean we should ask for them,” said Dr. Mike Fallon, a board member who is also an ER physician. The exchange needs new money to begin signing up customers for subsidies Oct. 1, Fallon said. “The trouble is, the money’s not free.”

With the exchange already operating on $61 million in previous U.S. grants, Fallon said, the added new request would mean spending $200 million to “sell insurance” already mandated and subsidized by federal law.

“We shouldn’t be victims to our ideology,” responded board member Arnold Salazar, whose group provides Medicaid mental-health services in southern Colorado. Salazar agreed with the consumer groups that outreach spending is key and should remain high.

Board CEO Patty Fontneau said about $14 million in outreach money would be available for “navigators” to walk new insurance customers through the subsidies, down from $20 million.

The board’s research has shown only one in 10 Coloradans understands what the health exchange will do and how it will provide insurance subsidies to Coloradans. The exchange is one of the two key pieces of “Obamacare” meant to extend insurance to millions of Americans; the other is a wide expansion of Medicaid eligibility.

In letters to the board, groups like the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative said the cuts to outreach could amount to “underfunding this crucial program.”

The board’s application for the $125 million federal grant is due next week. Members put off a decision on the target level of funding until consulting with a legislative oversight commission later this week.

Other major pieces of the grant request include $14.4 million for marketing, $33 million to build and staff a customer call center and more than $50 million for hardware, software and technology management.

Michael Booth was a health care & health policy writer at The Denver Post before departing in 2013. He started his journalism career as an assistant foreign editor at The Washington Post before moving with family to Denver and taking a brief stint with the Denver Business Journal. During a 25-year career at The Post, he covered city and state politics, droughts, entertainment and wrote Sunday takeouts, and was part of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams for breaking news coverage.

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